Tony Khan Talks Having “A True Competition” With WWE
AEW President Tony Khan stopped by WFAN's Moose and Maggie show this week to reveal AEW would be coming to the Tri State area twice in September. The first show will take place in the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on September 15, while the second will be the AEW Grand Slam in Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 22.
In addition to those shows, Khan also touched upon AEW's so called rivalry with Vince McMahon's WWE. Khan believes there is a competition between the two sides and he welcomes it and the chance to build a legacy for AEW.
"It's intense. It is a competition," Khan said. "There is no way around it. It's a true competition. I'm really excited about being a challenger brand and taking on a huge company. And I think for a long time fans were demanding an alternative, and AEW on TNT has given them that. Normally we do our show on Wednesday nights.. I'm doing a special Friday Night Dynamite this week. And then in a couple weeks we return to our Wednesday timeslot, and we'll be on Wednesday's from here on out.
"We've really carved out a great fanbase, and Wednesday nights we've made a great tradition for ourselves. We had competition on Wednesday nights and we don't anymore. I think we were very successful head to head against other wrestling on Wednesday nights, we've carved out that night for ourselves. In the fall we're also going to be doing a show called Rampage that will also be on Friday nights. And I think, hopefully, with the Friday Night Dynamite we're this week and the shows we've been doing recently, we're building a nice tradition of AEW on Friday night also."
In addition to his AEW duties, Khan is also the co-owner of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, as well as the Senior Vice President of Football Technology & Analytics and Chief Strategy Officer. Khan was asked if Tim Tebow or Gardiner Minshew would fit better in AEW, and while speaking highly of them, offered up two other names he'd like to see crossover.
"I love him (Tim Tebow) and Gardner (Minshew)," Khan said. "They're both great. Gardiner was at our last show actually. Gardiner likes the wrestling a lot. Myles Jack comes to the AEW shows a lot. Myles Jack would be very high on this list.
"But I would pick a tag team that we recently had stop in. We had DJ Chark and Josh Allen come in and visit and they were so excited to see Shaq. And I introduced them, and of course DJ Chark and Shaq both went to LSU. So they would be great. So maybe the tag team of Josh Allen and DJ Chark with Myles Jack in their corner."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Moose and Maggie on WFAN and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription